Philippines checks for swine fever as pig deaths rise

File photo of a hog cooling off in a pond in the Philippines. (Stewart Hall/iStock/Getty Images)

Manila | Reuters — The Philippines has set up a crisis management team to determine if the deadly African swine fever virus has reached the country after officials detected a rise in pig deaths in some areas.

The Bureau of Animal Industry had reported an increased mortality of pigs “raised by farmers in their backyards” but further laboratory tests were needed to confirm any outbreak of swine fever, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian nation last year put safeguards in place to protect its US$5 billion hog industry from the highly contagious disease, for which there is no cure and no vaccine.

The Philippines ranked eighth on a list of the top pork-producing nations in 2017 after China, the EU, the U.S., Brazil, Russia, Vietnam and Canada and ahead of Japan and South Korea, according to the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service.

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